Often, facility owners have multiple elevator/escalator service providers that maintain and repair their equipment, which is generally manufactured by various manufacturers. The service provider provides regular maintenance visits on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, as well as support in case of emergency (“callback”).
Callback is generally initiated by facility owners via calling the service provider. Once initiated, the service provider enters the information into its internal system and dispatches a technician. The information generated from the call and the dispatch becomes a part of the callback history. Facility owners are able to monitor and access the callback history from the service providers website. This is shown in FIG. 1.
Whether facility owners have a single building or multiple buildings, they generally have multiple service providers. With the use of multiple service providers, facility owners are forced to manage multiple accounts in order to access the different web applications from each service provider. Additionally, the various service providers utilize different codes, formats and presentations with respect to their data files. This is shown in FIG. 2. As such, it is a mammoth task to collect and interpret the information from the various service providers, as there is no uniformalization of information storage among the various service providers. To further complicate this situation, service providers' files are not always available, and are typically accessible only on an on-demand basis.
At the conclusion of a contract for services, facility owners may decide not to extend the contract with the service providers depending on multiple factors (e.g., quality of service, new service provider offers, etc.). When the contract between the facility owner and the service provider is terminated, the facility owner no longer has access to data that was stored by the service provider during the contract tenure. As a result, the callback and maintenance history is no longer available to the facility owner.
Since elevators and escalators have become computer controlled, they store elevator codes or events (e.g., information on the heat detectors or landing sensors) in the controller. Unfortunately, elevator/escalator code/event information is stored in a form that is proprietary to each manufacturer, and usage and maintenance data from different manufacturers cannot be compared.
Technicians who service elevators and escalators access the data from the controller and are able to access various statistical data, events of use and the last service intervals from each elevator. From this data, technicians are able to facilitate servicing of the equipment and anticipate problems before they arise.
Currently, the facility owner is able to access the controller's event and code remotely. Generally, the facility owner would install an application to gain remote access to the controller via a remote computer. Due to the direct connection between the controller and the facility owner's computer, the facility owner must be at the computer in order to open and view the event and code from the controller. This is shown in FIG. 3. As a result of the direct connection between the controller and the computer, the facility owner has to manage multiple accounts and computers. Additionally, the facility owner has no backup in case of data failure/disaster recovery. Further, the facility owner has to rely on a technician to analyze the event and code to identify or anticipate problems.
Comparison of maintenance and usage data from various manufacturers is beneficial as it enables streamlining of maintenance procedures and comparison of elevators under different usage circumstances. However, a method of uniformalizing has not been heretofore disclosed in the prior art. Therefore, there is a need to retrieve and uniformalize elevator usage and maintenance data.